Part 1. The Field of the Invention
This invention relates to battery separator materials. More precisely, this invention relates to relatively inexpensive, non-cellulosic, low ohmic resistance, maintenance free battery separators.
Part 2. Description of the Prior art
Compact portable electrolytic cells or batteries including spaced apart metal plates connected in series for storage of electrical energy are well known to the art. An important factor involved in the development of such batteries is the use of thin, porous separators placed between alternating positive and negative plates. The primary function assigned the separator is to effectively prevent metallic conduction between the plates to avoid short circuiting. At the same time, the separator must permit free passage of electrolyte solution for effective ion exchange between the plates.
Commercial separators have been manufactured from wood, microporous rubber, fiberous glass mats, microporous plastics, cellulosic and fiberous materials impregnated with acid insoluble resins and synthetic and glass woven fiberous and porous vitrious materials. Additional details relating to battery separators can be found in U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,793,398; 3,890,184; 4,024,323; 4,055,711; 4,113,927; 3,753,784; 3,694,265; 3,773,590; 3,351,495; 3,340,100; 3,055,966; 3,205,098 and 2,978,529.
The growing evolution of the so-called "maintenance free" battery has presented special considerations and problems in the development of battery separators. The maintenance free battery is a sealed unit which does not require addition of water during the life of the battery. For many years, the separator industry has preferentially produced cellulosic separators impregnated or treated with phenol aldehydes. Phenol aldehyde impregnated cellulosic separators are described in detail in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,272,657 and 3,247,025. These cellulosic separators presented an especially desirable combination of commercially attractive features including excellent electrical performance characteristics, low cost and good physical manufacturing properties. However, the outgassing properties of the cellulosic/phenolic type separator present problems in the maintenance free battery and this property has effectively disqualified phenol aldehyde impregnated cellulosic separators for use in permanently sealed units. Additionally, there has been a recent increase in environmental concern in the industry with the use of phenolic aldehydes.
Alternative separators have been developed by the industry for the maintenance free battery. However, these alternative separators have not presented the attractive combination of commercial features which led to the wide-spread acceptance and use of the earlier phenol aldehyde impregnated cellulosic separators. Instead, the alternative separators are generally associated with one or more commercially unattractive features such as high cost, and/or inferior electrical characteristics and/or poor physical properties and/or the use of materials of fabrication which are leachable or oxidizable thereby providing high chemical oxidation demand (C.O.D.).
In the development of alternative separators, particular emphasis has been placed on non-cellulosic separators providing good oxidation resistance and low ohmic resistance. The resistance to the passage of the electric current through the separator is an important factor, and is generally associated with the total porosity of the separator. As an approximation, the porosity may be assumed to be inversely proportional to the ohmic resistance. However, the manner in which porosity is achieved is also of special importance. The smaller the pore size, the more the tortuosity of the path of the electrolyte through the separator, thereby reducing the opportunity for formation of metallic deposits through the thickness of the separator which can cause a direct short. Porosity is achieved in most rubber and plastic type separators--whether formed by coagulation or extrusion techniques--by including small particles in the matrix which can be leached out by appropriate solutes after formation of the separator. This process provides a suitable degree of porosity but is intrinsically both costly and time consuming. In fiberous sheet separators, porosity is usually controlled by the selection of a variety of fiber diameters to regulate the size of the pores created at the interstices of the fiber crossover points and also by including relatively small amounts of siliceous type fillers. Separators providing high pore volumes can be achieved by this technique. However, the pore size and average pore size is somewhat larger than desired.
This invention is addressed to the outstanding problem in the art of providing a low cost, high performance, non-cellulosic separator for maintenance free batteries and presents an especially effective solution to that problem.